Belarus will launch the construction of a nuclear power plant in January 2009, Belarusian 1st Vice Premier Vladimir Semashko noted during a session of the board of the Energy Ministry on February 15. “In January 2009 we have to launch the construction of the nuclear power plant,” the 1st Vice Premier noted. According to him, by the end of the year specialists should finally determine the ground where the power plant will be constructed. As BelTA reported earlier, Belarus intends to construct a nuclear power plant with the total power generation capacity of 2,000MW, with the first energy unit scheduled for launch in 2016 and the commissioning of the second unit scheduled for 2018. At present, this country is creating the necessary legal base dealing with the nuclear power engineering. Preparations are underway in Belarus to hold an international tender for the nuclear power plant construction. Belarus has cooperated with IAEA in the issues related to the construction of the nuclear power plant for half and a year. IAEA missions have worked in Belarus. According to the 1st Vice Premier, Belarus needs to start the training of the personnel for the future nuclear power plant right now as according to the world practice, the training of the staff for the power plants should start 10 years before the plant is launched. As soon as Belarus builds a nuclear plant it will annually substitute about 5,5 -6 billion cubic meters of gas in its fuel balance. This is an important element of fuel diversification stipulated in Belarus’ energy security concept.